


Puppy Love Cafe

by threewalls



Series: Puppy Love Cafe [1]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Animal Play, Collars, Community: kink_bingo, Community: trope_bingo, M/M, Puppy Play
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-13
Updated: 2013-08-13
Packaged: 2017-12-23 09:46:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/924891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/threewalls/pseuds/threewalls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The puppy Lu Han wants Joonmyun's opinion about is shy. (A puppy boy cafe AU)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Puppy Love Cafe

**Author's Note:**

> Written for "animal play" for kink bingo, and "au: puppy boy cafe" (ie my wild card) for trope bingo.

Joonmyun apologises again when Lu Han opens the side entrance to the "Puppy Love Cafe". He had meant to arrive towards the end of the evening shift, not when the sun had already begun to lighten the sky. Joonmyun has a homeroom class for the first time this year, and not all of them are settling in well.

"Don't worry about it," Lu Han says. "I put him in the cage tonight, so he could get a feel for what happens during an evening shift. Minseok's put the rest to bed, but this one will probably test better with just the two of you in the room, anyway."

The puppy that Lu Han wants his opinion about is shy.

\---

The idea for the puppy cafe had come during university, when the three of them were sharing their notes and yet another pot of late-night coffee. Joonmyun can remember that conversation exactly, because that's when it all started.

"I won't need a degree if I go run a puppy cafe," Lu Han had huffed. Joonmyun had asked if he meant puppies or _puppies_? And that had made Minseok stop ignoring everything Lu Han was saying to note that a better business plan would involve both. 

Lu Han looks young enough to walk around university campuses, and he's got a good eye for the sort of student who will both like looking after dogs during the day _and_ acting like them after dark. Minseok has a better head for the business side of things and a well-practiced ability at reining Lu Han in. Joonmyun is their silent partner, brokering discreet invitations among family friends and friends of current members, but rarely involved with the day-to-day running of the cafe. He doesn't visit often. He's a high school teacher, after all.

Joonmyun has heard about the new puppy for the last few months, ever since Lu Han said he'd finally managed to pick up someone to fill the "cute puppy" gap in their roster since Chanyeol quit. Just when they'd all thought Lu Han had finally trained him not to bite, he had come into work with his shirt buttoned up over a collar from his boyfriend. 

Minseok has said that the new puppy isn't ready to work the evening shift yet, but Lu Han disagrees. That's why there are three of them in this together.

\---

The puppy is lying on blankets in a cage at the far side of the playroom. His hair is dark brown and looks pleasantly permed into poodle ringlets. Joonmyun can't judge his face because he's curled up with his paws covering his eyes, but the muscles of his back and shoulders are extremely promising through the bars. 

Lu Han smirks at him, obnoxiously waving the key to the cage's padlock back and forth. 

"What--?" Joonmyun says, the rest of his question muffled by Lu Han's palm.

The lock and the cage door are both well-maintained, and Lu Han opens the door with almost no sound.

"Come on, boy," he says. "Wake up. Time to play."

Joonmyun remembers Chanyeol's eager greetings with fondness, being knocked (gently) onto the floor, and Chanyeol's tongue roving wet all over his face. This puppy is not like that, but as soon as he lifts his head from out of his arms, blinking sleepily up at them, Joonmyun feels a smile unbidden blossom on his mouth. 

"What do you call him?" Joonmyun asks, trying and failing to look at Lu Han instead of at the puppy stretching and crawling out of the cage. 

"He doesn't get a puppy name until he's ready to play with customers," Lu Han says. "If you think he's ready, you can name him." 

This seems generous to Joonmyun, because Lu Han normally insists on naming all of them. But then he remembers that Minseok insisted on re-naming the cafe's last acquisition, because customers didn't like calling out: "D.O., come here, boy!"

Lu Han hands Joonmyun a box that was on top of the cage. From the size and weight, he can guess what it contains. The puppy isn't wearing a collar.

The puppy is looking at his front paws, not Joonmyun, but otherwise his posture is good. He doesn't seem at all self-conscious to be on his hands and knees wearing nothing more than Lycra bike shorts almost the colour of his skin, paw-padded mittens and a headband with velvet furred pointy ears. A dance major, Lu Han had said. So far, so good.

"Just an Americano, please," Joonmyun says, but Lu Han has already left them to get acquainted.

\---

By the time his coffee appears, only instant but in the very tallest mugs they have, Joonmyun has taken the puppy through a handful of simple commands: come, fetch, sit. They have a saliva-sodden tennis ball on the mat between them and the puppy is looking up at him through his bangs.

"You can lock up," Lu Han says. "After you've made a decision."

Lu Han disappears upstairs, where the puppies all sleep, both the permanently and temporarily furry kinds, leaving Joonmyun alone with the new puppy.

He moves well. He moves better than well, which is almost the problem. He had followed Joonmyun's commands with a sleek precision that was admirable, but not exactly cute. Not the cuteness Joonmyun had seen when the puppy had first awakened. 

He rubs the back of his neck, smelling the coffee. He thinks of his own empty bed, and that he's sure that Lu Han and Minseok are both right. This puppy does not need more training, but he also needs to be more playful than this.

"I'm not really this sort of master." Joonmyun sighs to himself. 

He's not Lu Han, who rough-houses with the puppies like he's one of them. He's not Minseok, who prefers birds to puppies, so he's less able to be charmed. Joonmyun is the one who only visits when the other two have a problem with a puppy; he's the one who believes that no puppy is a problem.

The cafe has low tables, mats and cushions. The floor is soft, because Joonmyun vetoed the others' plan to put all the puppies in shin pads. 

Joonmyun seats himself on a cushion, suit rumpling, and sets his briefcase on the table. The only thing in there he trusts himself to read right now is a paperback. What luck, to have this time where the only thing he can do is read.

The puppy is still watching him, now eye-level with Joonmyun. If the puppy were standing, he thinks, Joonmyun would be the one looking up. The puppy's eyes skitter away from his regard, and the puppy sinks onto his haunches and elbows.

Joonmyun reads through several pages, sipping his coffee.

"What soft cushions these are," he says, wriggling as he sits. "So comfortable after such a long day." 

He doesn't look up from his book, though he's lost on the page. He's thinking what else he can say when he hears a shuffling noise. He counts to twenty, and looks across, as if suddenly startled by a sound.

The puppy is completely still, though now a foot closer and with his rump poised in the air, tiny tail still shaking with suppressed movement. Joonmyun sighs loudly to himself. "I must have imagined it," he says, swallowing a smile and returns to his novel.

He reads the same page over and over again, ears straining for those soft, shuffling sounds over the quickening of his pulse. 

He feels the puppy's presence, the heat from his body, beside him for a long moment before the puppy pushes his face into Joonmyun's side.

"Ah, hello there!" he coos. "Aren't you a cute one?"

The puppy's bronzed skin flushes darker at this, but he doesn't flinch when Joonmyun lowers a hand onto his hair. 

The puppy whines in his throat, a cute sound, the first sound Joonmyun has heard from him tonight. His head only pushes up into Joonmyun's hand.

"It's late, isn't it?" Joonmyun says, petting the puppy in steady strokes. His hair is as fluffy as it had looked, and the skin across his shoulders is as soft. "Are you tired, boy? I'm tired."

And just like that, the puppy flops down on one shoulder, curling up along the cushion beside Joonmyun. This is good puppy behaviour, good reading of a customer's cues. The heavy press of the puppy's body against him makes Joonmyun's face hot.

"Good boy," he says, and returns to reading his paperback onehanded.

\---

The puppy is super cute asleep, as well.

Joonmyun's coffee is long past finished, and there is sunlight creeping around the blackout curtains that hang over the windows. Only the pressure of his bladder forces Joonmyun to move. 

The puppy's waking noises are not quite canine, but that only seems more adorable to Joonmyun. That the puppy had fallen asleep under the distracted passes of Joonmyun's hand.

Joonmyun stays standing when he returns. He's already decided to cast his vote in favour of this new recruit to their cafe, but tension in the puppy's shoulders gives Joonmyun pause before he might reach for the box on the table.

The puppy's eye contact is much better now, still skittish, but Joonmyun can tell he's trying. The puppy is also growing pink again. He wriggles, a movement that starts in his hips, rolling onto his back with paw-mittens and knees upraised. 

Joonmyun rewards the puppy by rubbing his exposed belly, telling him what a good boy he is while he holds that pose. The puppy pants, showing the pink of his tongue and thickening bulge inside his Lycra shorts. Lu Han's training programme has never failed yet.

Joonmyun pulls off the box lid with one hand, trusting his fingers to find the leather tag of the collar. The nameplate will come later, when Joonmyun tells Lu Han his decisions: his approval and the puppy's name.

The puppy rolls over on command, sitting as directed, as Joonmyun unbuckles the collar and lays the leather against the puppy's neck.

"Does this mean you're going to take me home?" the puppy asks.

Joonmyun drops the collar. The puppy is quicker than he is, picking it up with his mouth.

"Good boy," Joonmyun says. He has to laugh at himself. He's not young enough to stay up all night any more. "I'm so clumsy!" 

More careful the second time, Joonmyun settles the collar around the puppy's neck, the buckle bobbing each time the puppy swallows. 

"It means you have a job, _Kai_ ," Joonmyun says, sliding the leather tag of the collar home. "I'm not actually a customer. Sorry for the slight deception. My name is Kim Joonmyun, and I'm the boss you haven't met before tonight."

**Author's Note:**

> You can also comment at my [LJ](http://threewalls.livejournal.com/368492.html) or my [DW](http://threewalls.dreamwidth.org/241736.html) if you prefer.


End file.
